Chapter Text
Shu is a very chill person. Not a lot of situations get his feathers ruffled, so to speak. It’s rare to see him visibly annoyed and it’s even rarer for Shu to actually have to hold himself back from groaning aloud.
But it’s first period of calculus at the very beginning of his college life and the only remaining seat available is beside a bulk of muscle and blonde hair.
“Hey!” The guy waves , he actually waves at Shu as if he weren’t a complete stranger. “Over here!”
Shu’s eyebrow twitches, but he manages to plaster on a smile as he makes his way to the seat. He can feel the rest of the class eyeing him as the unfortunate sacrifice, sitting next to the extrovert at seven in the morning.
He blames Uki for being late.
“Hello hello hello!” The guy greets the moment Shu slides into his seat, “I’m Luca, you can sit beside me!”
Luca sounds like he speaks in all caps.
“Hello,” Shu mumbles and tips his head in greeting, turning away to busy himself with his things. “I’m Shu,” he says as he pulls out a pen and a notebook to avoid as much eye contact as possible.
“Hi Shu!” Luca bends forward and leans into his space anyway, trying to catch Shu’s eye, “hope we get along, yea!”
“Y-yeah.." he has no choice but to smile back, a little dizzy with the sudden invasion of personal space.
Shu braces himself for the drawn-out conversation and the eventual bragging that should come natural to jocks, but Luca just settles into his seat with a massive grin and a “Pog!” before going back to what looks like an entire page of silly doodles.
Shu blinks in surprise.
Alright, not quite what he expected. But Shu accepts the peace and quiet nonetheless.
He quickly turns back to his desk, and subtly inches away from his larger-than-life seatmate.
Listen .
Okay.
Shu is normally not this prejudiced against people, especially people he just met.
Jocks, however, are an exception.
The bullying and outright rude behaviour he had to endure in high school is still fresh in his mind. He distinctly remembers being pushed to the point of actually swearing at these jocks who kept breaking rules and getting the whole class punished.
He could go on endless tangents about how athletic people think they’re better than most and always out there showing off and ‘proving their worth’. Not to mention the absolute brainrot you get trying to hold a decent conversation with them.
In fact, it’s one of the few things Shu swore he would do in college, when he had more freedom: stay away from the sports nerds.
Shu chances a quick glance at Luca.
Toned muscles? Check.
Built like a fridge? Check.
Seemingly endless source of energy? Check.
Definitely a sports nerd!
Now, clearly, Luca has not demonstrated any sort of rude behaviour and is actually quite friendly. But Shu is determined to keep his head down, draw a line of human decency and go nowhere near that line if he wants a peaceful university experience.
Yes, that’s it.
Be polite, drop the occasional ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and be on his merry way.
That’s the plan.
The plan that quickly goes down the drain the moment the professor walks in, begins the session and assigns project partners based on… seating arrangement.
Seating arrangement!
Who even does that anymore?!
Luca instantly turns to Shu with his ten-megawatt smile and bright, twinkling eyes.
“That’s us!” He grins, scooching his chair just a little closer, “Shu, that’s us! We’re partners!”
We’re partners?!
“You doing okay there, Shu? You’re lookin’ a little pale-”
“I’m fine.” He lets out a shaky breath. “Everything’s fine.”
Everything is not fine.
"You're being dramatic ," Uki drawls as he adds another layer of shiny purple to his nails. “He seems nice. And hot.”
They’re seated outside, the hustle and bustle of the usual lunch rush goes unnoticed by the two friends crowded around their little table.
“He’s a jock, Uki! You know how I feel about jocks.” Shu huffs, “you witnessed it in high school!”
“So you admit he’s hot?”
“That’s not the point– You know what, this is your fault. If I didn’t have to wait for you to finish…” Shu gestures at Uki from head to toe, “...all this, I would’ve been early enough to sit far away from the jocks and jock adjacents.”
“You can’t rush perfection,” Uki rolls his eyes, “and you needed me to navigate for you on your first day.”
Shu finally groans out loud, dropping his head on the table.
“Oh come on,” Uki checks his nails, watching it glitter in the sunlight, “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”
That’s the thing.
If Shu had to be honest, if he had to be really really honest, the rest of the class didn’t go as badly as he anticipated. Aside from Luca’s noticeably short attention span made apparent by two full pages of doodles, Shu could tell he was actually trying to listen.
He would lean in every few minutes to either: a) ask “Did ya catch all of that? Sorry I spaced out…”, b) whisper a joke but giggle so much halfway through it becomes intelligible, or c) repeat said joke enough times that Shu finally understands it.
The professor called them out at least three times for all the noise his seatmate was making.
When it was time to huddle and discuss their project, Shu expected Luca to dump all the work on him with a “You’re smart, right?” and then go eat a protein bar or something.
Instead, Luca smiled sheepishly, “Sorry Shu, I’m not sure if I’m much help but I’ll try. Maybe we could exchange contact info and meetup later to work on it more?”
He looked almost shy about it, but Shu was using too many braincells to process all the whiplash he received in under an hour.
“Oh, uh,” A moment of silence and Shu pulled out his phone, “yeah, sure.”
Then there it was again, that too-bright smile that left Shu feeling exhausted.
“Awesome!” Luca looked so happy that Shu had to refrain from looking around to check if this was a prank. They quickly exchanged numbers and he turned to leave with a quick wave, only to be stopped by a hand on his sleeve.
“Oh, uh! Shu! Do you want to, uhm,” Luca scratched his head, “maybe have lunch later? I’m free after second period and–”
Oh, this is too much.
“Sorry.” Shu cut him off with a smile, “I’m having lunch with a friend... I’ll message you about the project. Uh, see ya.”
He quickly turned to leave again, determined to get as far away as possible because Shu refuses to let his guard down. Luca may not have demonstrated the stereotypical rude sports nerd behaviour, but his presence was exhausting. Almost like basking in the sun for too long.
This was already going way past the line Shu set this morning.
Be polite. Hellos and goodbyes. That’s still the plan. Surely, Luca has other jock friends he can eat lunch with.
He looks like a popular guy.
But what was unknown to Shu as he walked away, was that he missed Luca’s quiet “See ya…” and how he was quickly left alone in the corridor, that happy smile turning just a little sad.